Jamie Loftus

they're government things and in many places public libraries are arms of local government, that those two should also be run like a business and be subject to market logics and therefore number does not go up, we don't value this.

And that's basically it, is that it's hard now that we've had 30 years of overt neoliberalism in our government system and a couple of decades more of less obvious versions of it to make government, which is now being run like a business, even in the best of times, value things that aren't valued strictly monetarily. So there's no cultural value.

And that's basically it, is that it's hard now that we've had 30 years of overt neoliberalism in our government system and a couple of decades more of less obvious versions of it to make government, which is now being run like a business, even in the best of times, value things that aren't valued strictly monetarily. So there's no cultural value.

And that's basically it, is that it's hard now that we've had 30 years of overt neoliberalism in our government system and a couple of decades more of less obvious versions of it to make government, which is now being run like a business, even in the best of times, value things that aren't valued strictly monetarily. So there's no cultural value.

And even if the monetary value isn't extremely obvious, it somehow doesn't count.

And even if the monetary value isn't extremely obvious, it somehow doesn't count.

And even if the monetary value isn't extremely obvious, it somehow doesn't count.

Right. And then, you know, even though cops also don't make money in a direct sense, somehow we can still fund that. So it really shows that, like, in the case of where you are, the carceral solution is now the only solution we have. Yeah. And when we sit here as abolitionists and we say, well, let's get rid of all that stuff, and people say, well, what are you going to do instead?

Right. And then, you know, even though cops also don't make money in a direct sense, somehow we can still fund that. So it really shows that, like, in the case of where you are, the carceral solution is now the only solution we have. Yeah. And when we sit here as abolitionists and we say, well, let's get rid of all that stuff, and people say, well, what are you going to do instead?

Right. And then, you know, even though cops also don't make money in a direct sense, somehow we can still fund that. So it really shows that, like, in the case of where you are, the carceral solution is now the only solution we have. Yeah. And when we sit here as abolitionists and we say, well, let's get rid of all that stuff, and people say, well, what are you going to do instead?

Our answer is often no. It would be so different that it wouldn't be necessary. So we'd have prevention of the entire situation. That's one of the things that libraries offer, is prevention of the entire situation, making vast swaths of the carceral state unnecessary.

Our answer is often no. It would be so different that it wouldn't be necessary. So we'd have prevention of the entire situation. That's one of the things that libraries offer, is prevention of the entire situation, making vast swaths of the carceral state unnecessary.

Our answer is often no. It would be so different that it wouldn't be necessary. So we'd have prevention of the entire situation. That's one of the things that libraries offer, is prevention of the entire situation, making vast swaths of the carceral state unnecessary.

So there's a conscious choice there, especially when money is being taken out of the balance sheets of a city government from the libraries and put into the cops, of this carceral choice of saying, we'd rather everyone's life is shit so we can throw them in jail than everyone have a nice life and no one would have to go to jail.

So there's a conscious choice there, especially when money is being taken out of the balance sheets of a city government from the libraries and put into the cops, of this carceral choice of saying, we'd rather everyone's life is shit so we can throw them in jail than everyone have a nice life and no one would have to go to jail.

So there's a conscious choice there, especially when money is being taken out of the balance sheets of a city government from the libraries and put into the cops, of this carceral choice of saying, we'd rather everyone's life is shit so we can throw them in jail than everyone have a nice life and no one would have to go to jail.

I think there's a couple models, and it depends upon how far down the revelation you go. So the example you gave of Spain, we have contemporary with that and slightly more recent versions of that in the U.S. So the workman's circle, now the worker's circle, they funded really wonderful cultural programs, including libraries.

I think there's a couple models, and it depends upon how far down the revelation you go. So the example you gave of Spain, we have contemporary with that and slightly more recent versions of that in the U.S. So the workman's circle, now the worker's circle, they funded really wonderful cultural programs, including libraries.

I think there's a couple models, and it depends upon how far down the revelation you go. So the example you gave of Spain, we have contemporary with that and slightly more recent versions of that in the U.S. So the workman's circle, now the worker's circle, they funded really wonderful cultural programs, including libraries.

Unions often had libraries, especially back when they used to have more buildings. I'm part of my union, and aside from just being where I work, we don't necessarily have a building per se. So those things have always existed, especially in like the workmen circle in ethnic communities who were trying to preserve a culture. And that's something that fit into 20th century capitalism.